Vegas Vacation and Other Weekend Happenings

The Vegas Voyage and More!

Wednesday July 15th
After a resounding 58 at the Sports Radio 610 All Star Golf Classic (Did we win?) I took my sweat drenched body to Hobby Airport to meet the wife and hop on the 6pm flight to Las Vegas, Nevada. We are flying SW so naturally , there is no food or movie. That’s ok though because I was preoccupied with my dominant Texas Rangers franchise that I have put together on the PC game, MLB Front Office Manager.We land without incident- a huge improvement over our last trip in which one of the landing gears on the plane we were on refused to lock in place.
Our cabby bobs and weaves through traffic getting us to the MGM Grand in just under 30 minutes. I’m a bit on the tired side seeing as I have been up since 6am, playing golf and drinking beer. Unfortunately for me, there is nothing to bet on sports wise, so we go to dinner at Burger Bar. If you have never been to Vegas before and are looking for GREAT affordable eats, I highly recommend Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay. It has plenty of screens to watch sports (tonight the AAA baseball All Star Game- WOO HOO!) and the burgers are incredible. You can get a burger pretty much made out of any meet and topped with anything you can dream up. There most expensive burger on the menu is $84. It’s Japanese Kobe Beef topped with Lobster, Truffles, 3 different kinds of expensive cheese served on a Ciabata roll. The Sweet Potato Fries are kick-ass too!

After dinner I nearly gave my wife a heart attack as she witnessed me taking on a dealer 1 on 1 for $50 blackjack. I played one shoe seeing as I was worn out from the day, took my $250 in winnings, and headed to bed.

Thursday July 16th

The good part of taking your wife on a Vegas Vacation is, that she will typically sleep in, allowing you to “get your gamble on” around 8 AM or so. I head downstairs, charge a Starbucks to the room, and plan my attack. I crush a Craps table with some dude from Iran. He’s playing with $100 chips, I with $5’s, but I get so hot with the dice, that he starts tipping me on the rolls. This guy has to be the greatest Iranian since….ummm…what’s the dude’s name that was a Memphis Grizzly this season? (Hammdi Muhammad?)Anyway, after taking away a cool $500 I decide to hit the Sports Book to bet some baseball. Betting against the Washington Nationals seems to be the sensible play. (I would do this 3 straight days and win). I place my bet and get cocky. Sure I could have gone back up to the room and woke up my wife for breakfast, but noooo, I had to strong arm a blackjack table and a roulette wheel. I’ve never seen $800 fly out of my wallet faster. With tail planted firmly between legs, I head back up to the room and bury all evidence of me losing any $$$. (Keeping Wife Happy!)

We eat lunch at Le Creperie at Paris. It’s not a huge lunch because we had a big dinner planned at Le Circque @ Bellagio. After lunch, we take a cab to Cox Pavilion to watch the NBA Summer League Games that are on-going. The pretend Summer Rockets are taking on the pretend Lakers in a revenge game. The Rockets win easily. You can learn more about this game by following my twitter feed http://twitter.com/MJSR610. After the game I run into Rockets VP Sam Hinkie. (Daryl Morey’s right hand man). We talk about Chase Budinger, Joey Dorsey, and Trevor Ariza. He also says Anthony Randolph of The Golden State Warriors has been the most impressive player in the Summer League.

One cab back to MGM and I am ready to collect on my 1st victorious bet against the Washington Nationals and get ready for dinner and a show. Dinner at Le Cirque was not as good as I remembered. It was good, but not for the price. I did try rabbit for the 1st time ever. It was pretty good, tasted like chicken. We then headed to the 10:30pm showing of Circque De Solei “O”. They might as well change the name of this show to “ZZZ”.. I slept through half of it. It was the most expensive nap ever. If you have to go to one of the shows, stick with the Beatles one.

Friday July 17th

More early morning gambling here: crush the blackjack table, destroy “Let it Ride” annihilate craps table, I’m up a grand and head to the Sports Book. I place the obligatory bet against the Washington Nationals and head upstairs. Lunch is at The Wynn buffet ( I think it’s the best buffet I have been to on the strip.). The food seemingly changes every trip through the line, so you get a bit of everything. Desserts were especially good, with a mint chocolate mousse and key-lime pie being my personal favorites. We walk the strip in 114 degree heat (that’s not a typo). Friday night, both the wife and I crush a blackjack dealer at NY/NY and we retire to our quarters knowing full well, that we have rocked the Las Vegas economy to its very foundation.

Saturday July 18th

I’d rather not talk about the morning session. Let’s just say I was on the wrong end of EVERYTHING. I would also like to thank the Red Sox for no-showing on Saturday. Thanks guys! Lunch was at Wolfgang Pucks. This was a great meal. Started with an Asian Chicken Salad and ended with Ricotta Gnocchi in a sausage Bolognese. Took about a 5 hour nap, didn’t dare try to win back my losses as cold as I was. Showered after nap and got ready for dinner and a show. Tonight we were taking in Jay Leno at Mirage. Dinner was at Samba which is like Fogo De Chao except 100 times better. Double pork chop in an apple chutney with fried plantains, creamed spinach, and black beans really hit the spot. Leno was better than I expected. Maybe NBC should not have given this guy the shaft, Conan, or no Conan.

Sunday July 19th.

I wake up early to get my last sports bets in. I put $20 on the Astros to win the World Series at 100-1 odds and $200 on the Texans to win more than 8.5 games. Yes I am a homer. We get to the airport with plenty of time to watch the miraculous Tom Watson win the British Open at age 59. (or so we think) Watson chokes a 10 footer on 18 and we have to board the plane, rather than watch Stewart Cink stab everyone’s grandfather in the back in a 4 hole playoff. I’m 30,000 feet up as I conclude this summary. More sports thoughts are to follow.

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Tom Watson made 267 golf shots good enough to win his 6th British Open. Unfortunately the 268th never had a chance to find the hole and he ran out of gas in the 4 hole playoff versus Stu Cink. Cink is supposedly one of the nicest guys on the tour, but for this afternoon he was an unwilling sports villain who rained on the Watson victory parade in what would have been one of the 5 biggest triumphs of aged athletes that I can remember.

1. George Foreman won a piece of the heavyweight title at age 45 with a KO of Michael Moorer.

2. Jack Nicklaus won the Masters at age 46 in 1986.

3. Nolan Ryan threw a no-hitter in 1991 at age 44. 5/01/91 Nolan Ryan strikes out 16 in a 3-0 win over Toronto.

4. Jimmy Connors made a run to the semifinals of the US Open in 1991 at age 39 only to get wasted by Jim Courier.

5. Kareem Abdul-Jabaar makes the All Star Game at age 40 and 41 averaging 14ppg and 5rpg in the post season.
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The Astros could have easily swept the Dodgers in LA had a couple of breaks gone their way. Instead, they split the series and sit 4 games back of the St. Louis Cardinals as the red birds pay a visit to Minute Maid beginning Monday. The 'Stros might want to bring up Bud Norris pretty soon. They can't keep trotting out Hampton, Ortiz, and Moehler three out of every 5 days.